Sourdough September

[Welshrarebitontoast]

Anyone joining in?

During lockdown I didn’t really get onboard with baking banana bread or sourdough so am probably very late to the party.

Yesterday I decided to give it a go and have greater a starter, Dolly, so we’re in the feeding stage.

Has anyone else decided to take the plunge and join in this September?

Hi just found this. I’m a few weeks into mine now, how’s yours doing? Mixed results with my bread but the farmhouse on Boone discard pancakes are amazing!

I started a starter yesterday… my very first attempt 🤞🏼

Hope you enjoy it @BeanStew22

@Filleto starter going well, bread making not so much.

I have made discard cookies, pizza dough and things which have been great but just don’t have time for making a loaf at the moment.

good luck @BeanStew22

I got the bug during lockdown and still make bread, pizza dough, focaccia etc. I also made sweet dough like brioche, with a separate stiff sweet starter.

My go to recipe works perfectly for both bread and pizza; super simple. Make dough in evening/afternoon, into fridge before bedtime, then bake the next day. Once your starter is up and running, it becomes very easy!

Hi all - re making the starter for the first time, how would you get the temperature right at this time of year?

I don’t have an aga/hearing not in yet so I’ve wrapped the jar in a towel alongside a hot water bottle which is half boiling water/half room temperature

I also have an electric blanket if that would be better? Room temperature is about 18 degrees in my house today but I think it needs to be 25-30 to ferment

Some fermentation is happening but am concerned it might be too warm - is that an issue ?

Thanks @Welshrarebitontoast and @Filleto , hoping to make my first load on Friday

what are ‘discard cookies’?

thegingeredwhisk.com/sourdough-oatmeal-cookes/

here you go @BeanStew22

There’s loads online

Handy tip that I learned from Emmanuel Hajandreou - you don't need to make a lot of sourdough starter at a time, so you don't need to have a lot of sourdough discard.

Between making, in the fridge, I keep my rye starter in a tiny bonne maman jam jar, 1 g sour dough, 10 g of flour and water, and my normal starter is 2 g sourdough 20 g water and flour, that I then just mix with flour and water to make my chef.

I don't worry too much about temperature. My starter also rises overnight in the fridge. If I'm baking same day, I leave starter out to rise on counter. If I need for next day, I leave in fridge to rise.

Usually I just prep a small amount of starter for each bake, rather than have a continuous feeding programme going.

Basically anything you can make with your sourdough discard (often, when building a starter, you need to discard some as otherwise you end up with a large jar that needs a larger amount of flour to keep feeding it). To save you throwing it in the bin you can use discard to make banana bread, biscuits, pizza ( if you add some dried yeast to it), focaccia etc. I used mine at the weekend to makes awesome American-style fluffy pancakes. Loads of discard recipes out there.